There I was ‘Lionel’ which was to them the epitome of what they wanted me to be, but ‘Lionel’ was just a role I played as an actor. My family, on the other hand, couldn’t have been happier. Besides, I was just becoming aware that I was a gay man and the conflict of the expectations of Hollywood and the role of ‘Lionel’ placed me in enormous emotional, psychological, and spiritual conflict with myself. Losing my anonymity at such a young age was devastating to me. There was such a marked difference in our interpretations of the role.
I had not even seen one episode of the show before I took over the part, and the producers discouraged me from ever watching any of the episodes in which Mike had appeared.
#MIKE EVANS ACTOR 1999 TV#
There I was a total unknown one day, and the next appearing on network television in one of the top 10 TV shows on the air. However, that said, the first year on the show was quite a heady experience. No! I uprooted myself from a role as a classical music student and was thrust in the public’s eye overnight. It sounds like you didn’t enjoy doing the show. It was later revealed that he was actually “Henry Jefferson,” “George’s” brother.ĭamon revealed that his sexual preference became an issue for him on The Jeffersons as well. Lear improvised and hired Mel Stewart as a sort of “placeholder.” In the sitcom’s storyline, Stewart posed as “George Jefferson” when he joined “George’s” wife, “Louise” (played by Isabel Sanford), for dinner at the ‘Bunker’ home. Also, Sherman Hemsley was not the original George Jefferson.ĭamon is referring to this fun fact about the show’s beginning cast: From the character’s first appearance on All in the Family, producer, Norman Lear, had pegged Sherman Hemsley to play “George Jefferson.” But when All in the Family became a hit, Hemsley was tied up on Broadway as the co-star of Purlie, and was understandably reluctant to break his contract.
… The question asked of me will always be “Which ‘Lionel’ are you, the first or the second?” In retrospect, I think it was actually an impossible task to undertake because most people don’t seem to remember that Michael Evans was the first ‘Jefferson’ to appear on All in the Family. Gibbs has continued to work through her eighties and now into her nineties, with recurring roles on "The Hughleys," "Days of Our Lives," and a notable appearance in the "Breaking Bad" sequel film "El Camino" as a woman shopping for (what else) a vacuum cleaner.Damon Evans, who starred as “Lionel Evans” on “The Jeffersons” sitcomĭamon Evans: If I had to make that particular choice over again, that is accepting or not accepting the role of ‘Lionel’ and replacing actor Michael Evans, I definitely would have refused the role. Like her co-stars Hemsley and Sanford, Gibbs would reprise her role on an episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," a show whose own sarcastic domestic worker (Joseph Marcel as Geoffrey) owed an obvious debt to Florence.
#MIKE EVANS ACTOR 1999 SERIES#
In 1981 she headlined her own spin-off, "Checking In," in which Florence worked at a hotel, but returned to "The Jeffersons" after the series failed to attract audiences. Born Margaret Bradley in Chicago, Gibbs moved to Los Angeles as an adult and began to take acting and dance classes while working a day job for United Airlines in fact, she maintained her ticket reservation job for the first two years she was on the show. Gibbs' skills as Florence and her ease in front of the camera was all the more remarkable considering how new she was to acting when was cast. When NPR caught up with him in 2007, he was working on an Associate's degree in Psychology from Bronx Community College, and would later graduate from Brooklyn College, where in 2021 he appeared as a special guest at an event hosted by that university's LGBTQ resource center. By 2001, he had entered recovery and was performing again in regional theaters. But success overseas did not translate to success in the US, and Evans struggled with depression and drug addiction as his career took a downturn.
#MIKE EVANS ACTOR 1999 MOVIE#
After "The Jeffersons" he focused on stage work, with just a couple of on-screen roles, most notably as young Alex Haley in the 1979 TV movie sequel "Roots: The Next Generations." Evans garnered acclaim for his stage work in British productions of "Carmen Jones" and the Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess," which was filmed for a 1993 episode of "Great Performances" on PBS. Evans considered himself a musician first and foremost, having studied at Michigan's famed Interlochen Arts Academy as a young man.
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